Beside the Dying Light (A The Dead and the Restless Short Story Spin-Off)

#1 ~ The Santiago Brothers ~

As Matias Santiago stood next to the dummy with a hunting knife clasped in his hand, his furternal twin, Carlos Santiago, faced the class of eager, wide-eyed children.

"Today we are going to learn how to kill snappers," Carlos said, holding a steady tone as he motioned toward the dummy. "We will be using a fake dummy for today, but the concept will still be the same. But first, let's go over what we learned last week about defending ourselves."

Carlos walked over toward the group of children that sat cross legged in a clump. 

"Okay," he said, pulling out three tootsie rolls from his pocket. Light chatter sounded out between the kids as the excitement lit up their eyes. Carlos smiled as he saw how happy the kids were, as they were his favorite part of the week. When everything had come crashing down, the brother's had stuck together on their own. A couple of weeks after the initial outbreak, they'd come across the Gates, a large mansion that used to be owned by some celebrity and that was currently run by an ex-vet named Jerico. "Who can tell me what the first thing you should do if you see a snapper inside the community?"

Several hands shot up, and several 'me-me-me's' sounded out amongst the children.

"Hmm," Carlos said, putting a finger on his chin as he paced back and forth in front of the children. Some of the kids giggled as he passed, hands reaching for the clouds as all eyes were trained on him. Even Matias watched as his brother walked around, messing around with children as he went to try and get them to laugh. Carlos had always been the lively, social one out of the group. There was a light in him that attracted people like a beacon. This is why he always did the speaking whenever they were together and Matias did the demonstrating. He didn't mind staying in the background. He actually preferred it that way. It was simple, and Matias always liked simplicity. Besides, watching his brother brighten up people's day's is what he loved about him. "How about you, princess?"

"You go an fin' and adult," she said, a lisp on her lips as she spoke with her two front teeth missing. Carlos called her princess for a reason, as she wore the same tiara in her bleached-blonde hair and pink tutu everyday. She had to be no older than six, one of the younger kids of the group. The children that Carlos and Matias taught were nearly all ages, as Jerico thought it was important that they learned how to defend themselves in the new world they were growing up in. Carlos had hesitated at first, but then he realized that Jerico was right. There were other protests by the teachers that taught general education to the kids during the week along with parents, but most of the kids didn't have parents to speak for them, so in the end, Jerico's word was law. 

Carlos contemplated the answer for a second, then flashed her a smile as he tossed the tootsie roll to her. She jumped up and caught it, a toothy grin plastered on the young girls face.

Anyone knew that she was Carlos's favorite. The first week that Carlos and Matias had arrived at the Gates they'd applied to go out on runs for survivors and supplies on the outside. As city cops, they had experience with guns and didn't need to be trained. Jerico quickly agreed to have them lead, as they were one of the few in the community with any experience whatsoever. On their first run, they'd past a house and Carlos said he swore that he heard screaming. He ran into the house and his assumptions were correct. The girl was in her playroom, living off of crackers and snacks she had in there as snappers banged on her door to get to her. Soon after rescuing her, they'd learned her parents had turned. After Carlos brought her back to the Gates, they got bumped up to team leaders and she became one of the many orphaned. For the first few weeks, she had been silent. She wouldn't say a word to anyone. But Carlos was persistent, and tried every day to make her laugh or get so much as a 'hi' out of her. After a while, the persistence paid off and she'd practically became his daughter.